Dr Stefano Piemontese and Professor Nando Sigona explain why the origin of "Conversations with Iris", zoomcast and podcast series on migration and diversity into a new podcast. The podcast is available on Google, Apple Podcast, and Spotify. Before the pandemic, IRiS hosted monthly seminars on campus, inviting scholars, writers, and activists to present their work and discuss it with staff and... Continue Reading →
In the new episode (#26) of Conversations with Iris, Nando Sigona talks with professor Andrew Geddes, director of the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute, about his recent book 'Governing migration beyond the state' (Oxford University Press). The conversation explores the role of regional actors in migration governance and how responses to mobility... Continue Reading →
Earlier this year Laurie Hartley, Asylum Seeker Support Worker at Rainbow Migration (previously known as UKLGIG), spoke with Dawn River, academic with IRiS, about the experiences of LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in the UK. This recording has been published during Pride month to highlight the specific challenges facing LGBTQI+ asylum seekers. Pride month takes place... Continue Reading →
Launched in March 2021, the UK government's New Plan for Immigration is quickly moving towards parliament, after a short and contested period of consultation, 'worth no more than the paper on which it was printed', according to Zoe Gardner, policy advisor with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Despite its title, the UK... Continue Reading →
New research being launched on 8th June explores the impact of the UK’s immigration system on mixed-nationality families. At a webinar chaired by Baroness Shami Chakrabati, Dr Melanie Griffiths will speak about research she conducted looking how UK families are affected by one member’s insecure immigration status and the threat (or reality) of separation through... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-W2zLysusg In this webinar organised by the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) on 21 September, Professor Nasar Meer (The University of Edinburgh) explores the need to re-think two coterminous concerns: the rediscovery of the ‘local’ and the city in particular, and an understanding of the experience of displaced migration in Europe.... Continue Reading →
In this Zoom webinar (registration here) organised by the University of Birmingham's Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) on 21 September, Professor Nasar Meer will explore the need to re-think two coterminous concerns: the rediscovery of the ‘local’ and the city in particular, and an understanding of the experience of displaced migration in Europe. Drawing... Continue Reading →
Early in June Sandra Pertek spoke to Pip McKnight of Refugee Women Connect and Hana Leshaj, asylum seeker based in Liverpool and member of Refugee Women Connect Advocacy Group, about the deteriorating reality post COVID-19 for migrants and asylum seekers in the UK, at the time of easing lockdown restrictions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12bNXVGpcIQ&t=140s The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis... Continue Reading →
Professor Jenny Phillimore talks to Ruth Forecast and Sharon Baker of Malvern Welcomes about the challenges for refugees and volunteers in the time of Covid-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TpWVI8emb4 To find out more on IRiS Community Sponsorship research: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/superdiversity-institute/community-sponsorship-evaluation/index.aspx
In 2017, the Iranian-Kurdish writer, Behrouz Boochani, published an extraordinary book, No Friend But the Mountains which documented his life imprisoned in the Australian-run immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Combining political theory, myth, poetry, memoir, the book rises to the challenge of resisting oppression by creating a new literary form of... Continue Reading →
Conversations with Iris
